Oversupply or Underdistributed?

[Cookdata]

recently, news of farmers dumping their produce (in this case, tomatoes) have been a topic. this isn’t actually a new topic because already for years this has been happening. the consumers are left confused because the produce they have been buying are so expensive so how is it that there’s an oversupply?

the answer simply is underdistribution. the overwhelming produce aren’t distributed properly to markets or to consumers. instead the imports are the ones prioritized and sold in markets. sometimes the middlemen also really rake up the prices.

imagine how cheap the groceries can be if the government focused on the right things..

I don't know the origin you are using as specifications but I will tell you what I have understand about farming here from my region. The country is divided into north, south, west and east, all the food products are produce in the north, so if you based and in the north, you are going to enjoy cheap tomatoes more of discount during the harvest time, that's time farmers do have everything in excess and they have to transport it to other part of the country for sales.

Here comes the real challenge even during the harvest. It is very far from where the goods are been been produced and the road isn't good. If the famrrers are transporting goods there, they will have to spend money and that money will be calculated as cost of production and revenue for the goods and service. By the time tomatoes get over other regions, the tomato becomes expensive for the poor people despite the excess supply.

The transport is always a factor that contributed to this, I  Hope this helps.

[Youngrebel]

the answer simply is underdistribution. the overwhelming produce aren’t distributed properly to markets or to consumers. instead the imports are the ones prioritized and sold in markets. sometimes the middlemen also really rake up the prices.

imagine how cheap the groceries can be if the government focused on the right things..

Logistics is always the problem for 3rd world countries like my country. I don’t know what country you are referring on your scenario but redistribution is indeed the main culprit why many produce doesn’t go to the market easily that creates a shortage on supply.

Farmers choose to dump their produce rather than sell it in bargain when there’s no logistics available so that other opportunistic businessman don’t intentionally cut the logistics just to purchase in cheap price.

Government should fund logistics from farm to market to bring lower cost of farm products.

This is indeed a great opportunity that the government can leverage on as another form of revenue creation.  I'm sure your country is an African country because its only here that these kind of vital natterare neglected all the time. Like doesn't matter.
Imagine the government creating a structure were the farm products will be picked up from tje local farmers at the point of harvesting.  There's certainly going to be a great saving rate of farm produce.  Thers going to be minimal spoilages as well as easier means of transportation for the produce.  This will automatically translate to a cheaper market price because of allot of reasons..
This will not only reduce cost of products but will also also enhance an increase in productivity because the farmers dont have to worry about how to transport their goods to the market and sell. They will have all the time to just think about producing more and expanding their farmland because they are sure of selling off all their products at the point of harvesting.

[Cryptohygenic]

You described phenomena also often happen in my country, farmer throw away their harvesting fruit or vegeratble as a protest to government which is considered to have failed to protect the welfare of farmers. This is not only government fail but mostly because seasonal glut due to over supply which cause local supply shock. There are social movement which buy farmer's declining price harvesting supply, after they buy in reasonable and
acceptable price, they share with community mostly in urban area.  Beside that, because of online market platform, farmer can sell directly to end user/customer with higher price than they sell to village collector. matter of fact online market platform cut long supply chain. Traditionally farmer sell to village collector which bring to large collector, after that they sell to urban distributor, bring to wholesale market, trader buy to sell to end user.

Op was just unusual to when we expects texts to be coherent for easy grasp of the audience, the topic is just incomprehensible like it has been a active running discussion in the board section. Lol.
Consumers don't have to be confused over cost of products whether during inflation or deflation market because their own is to buy as much as they can afford or buys the lower quality or quality they can afford.
If there is one to be confused it should be the farmers or producers who on their own risk managements looks out to what product to prioritize on producing to earn them profits because when there are no consumers for patronage, their resources becomes a waste.
So it is absolutely their obligations to allocate buy able products for consumers.
Tomatoes has less preservative recipes and when demand is lower than supplies and cost is high, definitely will cause the producers lost therefore consumers have nothing to loose even when price is high because they have no choice if they are really in need while producers sets their price rate according to cost of production over farm aids and agricultural policies.

[Hanadawa]

This will not only reduce cost of products but will also also enhance an increase in productivity because the farmers dont have to worry about how to transport their goods to the market and sell. They will have all the time to just think about producing more and expanding their farmland because they are sure of selling off all their products at the point of harvesting.

Government-managed distribution can only be successful if government officials are truly trustworthy and carry out their duties effectively and responsibly. I've been pondering this for a long time. Why not let the government take over the logistics and distribution sector so farmers can focus solely on developing their crops, while market sellers receive goods at competitive prices? But the reality is, many issues need to be addressed before the government can become a logistics chain. These include infrastructure readiness, an integrated system, lower costs, reliable human resources, and businesses with a suitable scale. In a country like Indonesia, if the government becomes the agricultural supply chain, the main problem is that most farmers only own small plots of land, which means harvesting agricultural products becomes slower and takes longer. This contrasts with the private sector, where each private logistics entrepreneur already has their own work area and is not tied to a complex system like a government-managed supply chain.

[Berry2d]

recently, news of farmers dumping their produce (in this case, tomatoes) have been a topic. this isn’t actually a new topic because already for years this has been happening. the consumers are left confused because the produce they have been buying are so expensive so how is it that there’s an oversupply?

the answer simply is underdistribution. the overwhelming produce aren’t distributed properly to markets or to consumers. instead the imports are the ones prioritized and sold in markets. sometimes the middlemen also really rake up the prices.

imagine how cheap the groceries can be if the government focused on the right things..

I don't know the origin you are using as specifications but I will tell you what I have understand about farming here from my region. The country is divided into north, south, west and east, all the food products are produce in the north, so if you based and in the north, you are going to enjoy cheap tomatoes more of discount during the harvest time, that's time farmers do have everything in excess and they have to transport it to other part of the country for sales.

Here comes the real challenge even during the harvest. It is very far from where the goods are been been produced and the road isn't good. If the famrrers are transporting goods there, they will have to spend money and that money will be calculated as cost of production and revenue for the goods and service. By the time tomatoes get over other regions, the tomato becomes expensive for the poor people despite the excess supply.

The transport is always a factor that contributed to this, I  Hope this helps.

Yes transportation is one major challenge associated to the increased in the the cost of commodities before other factors can come in also for  the same reason. The issue of bad road network  have been in existence since ages, not that there is know provision or capital for the construction of those roads but leaders choose themselves over the interest of the masses therefore stealing all the capitals kept aside for the construction of those roads, therefore making it difficult for the products to be transported to meet to final consumer's. Even if you are to be in the farmers shoes, you can't spend all that in transportation without adding it to the prices of those goods .

[el kaka22]

To be fair, farming is not a profitable business at all, it's very inefficient and it requires way too much resources to be able to make it for cheap so that people can buy it. If we were to not subsidies any farms, and not give them any help, and just buy them for a profit, the produce would be ten times the higher price we are paying right now.

So the reason why farming isn't getting more famous is because of lack of profit, and we do not really have a smart solution to make the crops cheap so people can buy it, but also make it profitable for the farmers so that they can make a living. And as long as we do not have a solution for that, it is going to keep being a problem and we will just end up with nobody being happy about it.

[tbterryboy]

I have seen this to be happening for decades now, so this is nothing new to me. The reason why I think this happens is because of the middlemen who are always there to cut some commission out of the profits. Farmers do not really get fair price for their produce and as a end result, we see various such strikes. This will continue until the industry is unregulated. The market is really catered, and we can see thousands and thousands of middlemen present on every street to eat profits. The solution for this will be to work more on connecting farmers directly to the end users by digitalizing the process. I am sure there are a number of companies doing the same outside there but the more the better.

Price for such groceries can immensely drop even in this scenario if farmers are connected directly to the end user. This will benefit from all sides and I can't think of a reason why a user would not purchase from the farmer.

[r_victory]

Brazil, where I live, is a country that produces food on a large scale but whose main focus is export. Meanwhile, the population pays dearly for food in the market, when they can afford to buy it, and many don't even have enough to eat. We have everything: good land, good machinery, and food technology. It's truly difficult to understand how food can be discarded when we see people in need of it.

Data from a study conducted by an organization that aims to eradicate hunger in Brazil by 2030 and reduce food waste shows that:

• Of the 161.3 million tons of food that Brazil produces annually, 55.4 million tons are wasted each year, from the field to the table.
• Of the 55.4 million tons of food wasted, 17.3% are lost in production and harvesting, 10.8 million in post-harvest, storage, and transport, 11.9 million in manufacturing and supply, 7.9 million in food retail and food service, and 7.5 million by the final consumer.

A government committed to the well-being of the population makes all the difference; much of this could be avoided. A solution needs to be found to minimize this waste. In many situations, the cost of transportation ends up being higher than the price paid to the producer, making it impossible to distribute the production and resulting in this absurd situation that we see happening with what could alleviate hunger in the country. This is compounded by the poor condition and lack of safety of the roads.

[Rabata]

Price for such groceries can immensely drop even in this scenario if farmers are connected directly to the end user. This will benefit from all sides and I can't think of a reason why a user would not purchase from the farmer.

Yes, If a direct link can be established between farmers and consumers, the power of middlemen will be weakened. They will not be able to artificially create a crisis in the market and make excessive demands. As a result, not only the consumer but also the producer will benefit. If a link is established from the farmer's land to all parts of the country, then the farmer will be able to deliver his products directly to the consumer. I think this is the best way to control those who are the third parities.

[Josefjix]

Price for such groceries can immensely drop even in this scenario if farmers are connected directly to the end user. This will benefit from all sides and I can't think of a reason why a user would not purchase from the farmer.

Yes, If a direct link can be established between farmers and consumers, the power of middlemen will be weakened. They will not be able to artificially create a crisis in the market and make excessive demands. As a result, not only the consumer but also the producer will benefit. If a link is established from the farmer's land to all parts of the country, then the farmer will be able to deliver his products directly to the consumer. I think this is the best way to control those who are the third parities.

It's impossible, every chain of supply must start from the farmer which are the producer to the wholesaler to the retailer to the consumers. Remember that, not all regions produce tomatoes for instance in a nation, so that region needs a retailer to buy in bulk from wholesaler while the same process down to producer.

Whatever the retailers does to the product to consumer are no body's business, they can tend to increase the price, products can tend to reduce in quality, get spoiled and so on, so it's possible for them to alter the price to customers in that region that doesn't produce tomatoes.

[Oluwa-btc]

the answer simply is underdistribution. the overwhelming produce aren’t distributed properly to markets or to consumers. instead the imports are the ones prioritized and sold in markets. sometimes the middlemen also really rake up the prices.

imagine how cheap the groceries can be if the government focused on the right things..

The problem is the distribution of fstm produce so as for it to get across intended buyers and customers, but when the demand and supply ain't in equilibrium it'll results in spoilage of produce which is logically not a good omen for a growing country. I think when supply is lower than expectations of consumers demands there tend to be an uneven distribution leading to the deteriorating markets.

[PX-Z]

Upon reading replies so this is not really just common on my area (an agricultural country) but in other part of the world too where governments don't prioritize their farmers when food security should be prioritized. Instead they will do imports for cheaper and with kickback transactions (with governments). Prices always went up because of this. Its the same cartels of sugar, onion, rice, so many foods just pile and hodl in  big warehouse where they can control the supply and prices.

[Iroh]

We've got here a disruption in the chain of supply. The problem being the efficient distribution of finished goods to wholesalers, retailers and finally, to the consumers. Distribution entails proper storage of the finished goods in a suitable manner and environment and then transported to where the consumers are.
Without a proper distribution channel, there would be delays getting yhe finished goods to where they need to be and this could cause shortages or worse, artificial scarcity in the market.
Hence the need to create proper distribution channels that would aid the movement of finished goods to the consumers in good time. This would over time, encourage local production as well as slowly reduce the dependency on foreign produce.

[SquallLeonhart]

Farmers will need to get some help and innovation from science to make sure that they can grow better crops and a lot more. This isn't easy of course, but the day we have crops that are healthy, and not dying out of bad weather or anything related to sickness etc, and give a great yield all at the same time, then they would have a lot more produce to sell.

Right now, it's volatile, a bad raining week and it's all gone, a dry month and it's all gone, like they can't really do it, and if they want to spray it to protect it, then it's unhealthy and becomes even cheaper or not wanted. So if farmers need to survive, we need to make sure it's all healthy, it's giving good yield and not dying so that they can sell for cheap but have bigger amount so they can profit.

[Emitdama]

transportation is one major challenge associated to the increased in the the cost of commodities before other factors can come in also for  the same reason. The issue of bad road network  have been in existence since ages, not that there is know provision or capital for the construction of those roads but leaders choose themselves over the interest of the masses therefore stealing all the capitals kept aside for the construction of those roads, therefore making it difficult for the products to be transported to meet to final consumer's. Even if you are to be in the farmers shoes, you can't spend all that in transportation without adding it to the prices of those goods .

Technology plays an important role here as by using the right technology, we can manufacture or grow everything, everywhere. Transportation cost will drop eventually, and people will start building projects all over the whole which will decrease transportation demand.

As of now, yes transportation plays an important role because of the cold chain supply. Manufactures are spending almost more than 40% just on transportation alone because of the perishable goods which needs to be delivered and consumed in less than a week. Marketing and transportation cost is pretty high with these companies.

Farmers now do have opportunities to sell the goods by themselves in farmers markets, and I think these farmers can surely afford transportation of their own. They can make profits if they utilize their resources properly. Transportation will be expensive but not a barrier here is what I think.